FOOTNOTES

And Atirupa said: Chamu, be ready, when I call. And when they were all gone, he exclaimed with impatience: Now then, Osannyásí, to thy business, without any more delay. Who is thy employer? And thesannyásísaid: Aranyání: and if thou hast forgotten her, she has not forgotten thee. But having abandoned her own body, she has entered mine, to give thee, as I said, the kiss of death.

And then, as Atirupa stared at him with amazement; thatsannyásíleaped upon him, with a yell, and seized him, and threw him suddenly on his back. And he knelt on his throat, like a very mountain, and taking from his waist a knife, he plunged it, with blows like those of a carpenter that hammers in a nail, over and over again into his heart.

And then, as the retainers came running in, summoned as though on purpose, by his own yell, with Chamu at their head, he started to his feet. And as they looked towards him, lo! thatsannyásíbegan to laugh. And he put up suddenly his hands, and seized, with one, his hair, and with the other, his beard, and tore them from his head.

And as Chamu stopped short, gazing at him with stupor and recognition, he stood for a single instant absolutely still, as if to let him see. And then, he leaned suddenly towards him, and he lifted his finger and he whispered very low: Hark! Dost thou not hear Aranyání calling, out of the other world? So now, then, we will go together, to seek her, along the great road. And he threw himself suddenly on Chamu, and took him by the throat, with huge hands whose fingers resembled the roots of awatatree.

And as he felt the throat of that ill-doer in his hands, there came over him like a flood madness, that resembled the intoxication compounded of delight, and fury, and despair, as if his life-long devotion to Aranyání, and his wrath at her ruin and his own, had waited till that very moment to mingle with the rapture of revenge, and filling his soul with the ecstasy of the strength of a giant, had then become concentrated to pass into his hands. And as he squeezed, he muttered, not knowing what he said: Laugh, weasel, laugh now at Aranyání. And in the meantime all the others, to whom he paid no more attention than as if they were not there, seeing absolutely nothing before him but the eyes of Chamu that were starting from his head, fell upon him all together in a body, like a swarm of bees, and stung him, as it were, to death, exactly as they chose, cutting him to pieces with swords and knives. But for all that they did, they could not loose his hands, which remained just as they were, locked like an iron ring around the throat to which they clung, as if his will still animated them, even after he was dead.

So it came about, just as he predicted; and those two very bitter enemies went together, and as it were, hand-in-hand, into the other world. And Chamu, with his master Atirupa, went into other bodies. But the soul of Babhru entered, for his crime, into that body of a camel lying yonder, which perished, as I told thee to begin with, in the desert long ago.

And then, the Moony-crested stopped. And after a while, the Daughter of the Snow said softly: Alas! for these unhappy mortal women, who suffer at the hands of evil-minded lovers, such intolerable wrong, and woe. And yet, as I think, poor Babhru deserved rather to be forgiven altogether, or even to be actually rewarded, rather than punished by the body of a camel, for treating those two ill-doers even better than they merited, for such outrageous crime.

Then said Maheshwara, looking at her with affection: O Daughter of the Snow, thou resemblest every other woman, judging by thy own pity and compassion, and the emotion aroused in thy soul by the particular misfortune of a solitary case, not taking into any consideration the constitution of the world. And this is a merit and a beauty in thee, and yet it is altogether wrong. For Babhru suffered as a consequence of acts committed in a former birth, the circumstances of which thou dost not know. And moreover, even so, he was culpable and presumptuous, in taking on himself a vengeance to which even Aranyání did not urge him, not knowing that punishment far more terrible than his was waiting for those criminals, without his interference. And he should have left Aranyání's vindication to the deity, who knew what was necessary far better than himself, and had his eye upon it all. For there is no retribution so just, or so sure, or so adequate, or awful, as that which evil-doers lay upon themselves, in the form of their own ill-deeds, which dog them like a shadow clinging to their heels, from body to body, through birth after birth, till the very last atom of guilt has passed through the furnace of expiation, and the very last item of their debt to everlasting Yama has been weighed in his scales, and struck from the account, and utterly redeemed.

And then, that Lord of the Moony Tire took his darling in his arms, and set her on his lap: and they rose up and floated away together like a cloud to their home on the snowy peak. But the bones of that camel remained alone, lying still in the sand, till the moon got up and gazed at them with wonder, looking down from the sky, as if mistaking them for a reflection of himself, looking back at him with white and silent laughter from the blackness of the earth, and saying as it were: By the help of thy beams, I am whiter than thyself. And the night-wind rushed over them, scattering over them oblivion, in the form of a cloud of its plaything, the ocean of the sand, and danced round and fled away with a wail into the desert, with a music that resembled the moan of the world for the victims of the waste.

FOOTNOTES[1]I am told, by a pundit in these matters, that the term is found at least as early as Patanjali (theMahábháshya;) that is probably, the latter half of the second centuryB.C.: and hence, it must have originated long before.[2]In hisDoctrine and Discipline of Divorce.[3]I was sorely tempted to give it the title ofMere Foam: which, if the reader would kindly understandmerein its German, its Russian, its Latin, and its ordinary English sense, would be an exact translation. But it has an unfortunate suggestion (meerschaum) which made it impossible.[4]Sat.The thesis of Socrates, that virtue is knowledge: probably borrowed, by steps that we cannot trace, through Pythagoras or "Orpheus" from the East.[5][ὁναρ ἑλευθεριαϛ ὁρὡνταϛ Plutarch.][6]Ganesha.[7]i.e.the god of love, Kámadewa.[8]It would have been useless for Brahma to turn away his face, since he has four; one on every side.[9]Kupanditá, the exact equivalent of our word. Saraswati is the Hindoo Pallas Athene; with this distinction in her favour, that she is as gentle as the Greek lady is the reverse. Theflava viragoof Ovid becomes in India a lotus white and pure as her own celestial smile.[10]Because Maheshwara had burned him, on a previous occasion, with fire from his eye.[11]In these and similar ideas, the Hindoos resembled the ancient Romans: the letter was decisive and irremediable,uti lingua nuncupassit, ita jus esto.[12]This exordium, which has points of resemblance with that of the insufferable Bána'sHarsha-charita, is only the Hindoo method of declaring that the two characters presently to be brought upon the scene are mortal incarnations of love and charm: as we call a man, an Adonis, or a woman, a Venus.[13]i.e.the disc of the moon, andvictory. Pronounce Jaya to rhyme witheye.[14]i.e.the Himálaya.[15]i.e.of extraordinary and surpassing beauty. Pronounce Uttirupa.[16]The Hindoo Aphrodite.[17]There is here an untranslateable play onbimba, the fruit, (as we say, cherry lip) andpratibimba, a reflection in the water.[18]All this depends on an elaborate play on the double meaning ofSmara, a name for the God of Love, which meansmemoryas well aslove.[19]Yoga.The germ of truth, and it is a large one, in the philosophy ofYogais the doctrine, which is proved by all experience, thatconcentrationis the secret of mastery.[20]There is a ludicrous pedantry about the elaborate categories of Hindoo sages: they make grammatical rules even for every department of erotics: as if it were necessary for ladies to learn the grammar of the subject, before they could make love![21]Pronounce Chummoo.[22]The goddess of Fortune and Beauty. She is the very incarnation of theabhisariká, since she comes of her own accord.[23]Ahiphena, "snake-foam," said by Udoy Chand Dutt in hisMateria Medica Indicato be derived from the Arabicafyoon, as it was apparently unknown in India before the Musulman invasion.[24]An untranslateable play ondarí, wood, andsundarí, a beautiful woman.[25]Alipriyá, "beloved of the bees," a name of the trumpet flower,Bignonia suaveolens.Aranyání, a forest goddess, nymph, or dryad. Pronounce Urrun-nyání.[26]Ekashrutadhará.This word exhibits the opinion entertained by the Hindoos as to the close connection existing between a powerful intellect and a retentive memory. Such a quality indicates the highest kind of pundit: and it should be recollected that Saraswati is the divinity of wisdom, the punditpar excellence.[27]Sc. the Himálaya.[28]The old epics are full of stories of these gatherings, held to enable the daughters of Kings to choose their own husbands. The story of the marriage in Herodotus, about which Hippocleides did not care, is one of the few parallels in the west.[29]Tawny: reddish brown. Pronounce Bub-bhroo.[30]Achcha, a corruption ofRiksha, just as we say "Bruin" instead of "Bear."[31]i.e."little king," Prince of Wales or Dauphin. The story is a piece of old folklore, and one version may be found in Somadewa.[32]The women's apartments, orgynæceum.[33]i.e.Brahma, Shiwa, and Wishnu respectively.[34]By moving round him, keeping him on the right: an established form of adoration.[35]This curious and very beautiful legend may be found in the Puránas.[36]The scene of the great battle in the Mahábhárata, where all the heroes killed each other.[37]It should be remembered by the English reader that "sons of Kings" are more numerous, in India, than in the West. All Rajpoots are sons of Kings: and Aranyání herself a Rajpootni. To marry a King's son would be for her, not merely a desire, but a duty: an affair of caste. All this flavour evaporates in a translation.[38]The point of these interpretations depends on the number five, which enters into all of them.[39]There is a play here onwámá, which means theleft handanda beautiful woman.[40]They appear to have been women, very often, in mediæval or ancient India.[41]And yet, not so much in India as in Europe. Even now, incarnations of deity might be found all over India.[42]The point of the flattery lies, of course, in the insinuation that Atirupa was the God of Love.[43]All thesesannyásís,byrágís,gosáwís, were as a rule wandering scoundrels who had, and have, much to do with politics.[44]As we should say: Père Joseph, orâme-damnée.

[1]I am told, by a pundit in these matters, that the term is found at least as early as Patanjali (theMahábháshya;) that is probably, the latter half of the second centuryB.C.: and hence, it must have originated long before.

[2]In hisDoctrine and Discipline of Divorce.

[3]I was sorely tempted to give it the title ofMere Foam: which, if the reader would kindly understandmerein its German, its Russian, its Latin, and its ordinary English sense, would be an exact translation. But it has an unfortunate suggestion (meerschaum) which made it impossible.

[4]Sat.The thesis of Socrates, that virtue is knowledge: probably borrowed, by steps that we cannot trace, through Pythagoras or "Orpheus" from the East.

[5][ὁναρ ἑλευθεριαϛ ὁρὡνταϛ Plutarch.]

[6]Ganesha.

[7]i.e.the god of love, Kámadewa.

[8]It would have been useless for Brahma to turn away his face, since he has four; one on every side.

[9]Kupanditá, the exact equivalent of our word. Saraswati is the Hindoo Pallas Athene; with this distinction in her favour, that she is as gentle as the Greek lady is the reverse. Theflava viragoof Ovid becomes in India a lotus white and pure as her own celestial smile.

[10]Because Maheshwara had burned him, on a previous occasion, with fire from his eye.

[11]In these and similar ideas, the Hindoos resembled the ancient Romans: the letter was decisive and irremediable,uti lingua nuncupassit, ita jus esto.

[12]This exordium, which has points of resemblance with that of the insufferable Bána'sHarsha-charita, is only the Hindoo method of declaring that the two characters presently to be brought upon the scene are mortal incarnations of love and charm: as we call a man, an Adonis, or a woman, a Venus.

[13]i.e.the disc of the moon, andvictory. Pronounce Jaya to rhyme witheye.

[14]i.e.the Himálaya.

[15]i.e.of extraordinary and surpassing beauty. Pronounce Uttirupa.

[16]The Hindoo Aphrodite.

[17]There is here an untranslateable play onbimba, the fruit, (as we say, cherry lip) andpratibimba, a reflection in the water.

[18]All this depends on an elaborate play on the double meaning ofSmara, a name for the God of Love, which meansmemoryas well aslove.

[19]Yoga.The germ of truth, and it is a large one, in the philosophy ofYogais the doctrine, which is proved by all experience, thatconcentrationis the secret of mastery.

[20]There is a ludicrous pedantry about the elaborate categories of Hindoo sages: they make grammatical rules even for every department of erotics: as if it were necessary for ladies to learn the grammar of the subject, before they could make love!

[21]Pronounce Chummoo.

[22]The goddess of Fortune and Beauty. She is the very incarnation of theabhisariká, since she comes of her own accord.

[23]Ahiphena, "snake-foam," said by Udoy Chand Dutt in hisMateria Medica Indicato be derived from the Arabicafyoon, as it was apparently unknown in India before the Musulman invasion.

[24]An untranslateable play ondarí, wood, andsundarí, a beautiful woman.

[25]Alipriyá, "beloved of the bees," a name of the trumpet flower,Bignonia suaveolens.Aranyání, a forest goddess, nymph, or dryad. Pronounce Urrun-nyání.

[26]Ekashrutadhará.This word exhibits the opinion entertained by the Hindoos as to the close connection existing between a powerful intellect and a retentive memory. Such a quality indicates the highest kind of pundit: and it should be recollected that Saraswati is the divinity of wisdom, the punditpar excellence.

[27]Sc. the Himálaya.

[28]The old epics are full of stories of these gatherings, held to enable the daughters of Kings to choose their own husbands. The story of the marriage in Herodotus, about which Hippocleides did not care, is one of the few parallels in the west.

[29]Tawny: reddish brown. Pronounce Bub-bhroo.

[30]Achcha, a corruption ofRiksha, just as we say "Bruin" instead of "Bear."

[31]i.e."little king," Prince of Wales or Dauphin. The story is a piece of old folklore, and one version may be found in Somadewa.

[32]The women's apartments, orgynæceum.

[33]i.e.Brahma, Shiwa, and Wishnu respectively.

[34]By moving round him, keeping him on the right: an established form of adoration.

[35]This curious and very beautiful legend may be found in the Puránas.

[36]The scene of the great battle in the Mahábhárata, where all the heroes killed each other.

[37]It should be remembered by the English reader that "sons of Kings" are more numerous, in India, than in the West. All Rajpoots are sons of Kings: and Aranyání herself a Rajpootni. To marry a King's son would be for her, not merely a desire, but a duty: an affair of caste. All this flavour evaporates in a translation.

[38]The point of these interpretations depends on the number five, which enters into all of them.

[39]There is a play here onwámá, which means theleft handanda beautiful woman.

[40]They appear to have been women, very often, in mediæval or ancient India.

[41]And yet, not so much in India as in Europe. Even now, incarnations of deity might be found all over India.

[42]The point of the flattery lies, of course, in the insinuation that Atirupa was the God of Love.

[43]All thesesannyásís,byrágís,gosáwís, were as a rule wandering scoundrels who had, and have, much to do with politics.

[44]As we should say: Père Joseph, orâme-damnée.

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The history of these fascinating little books, which, to a few readers, have always meant so much, and which are every day becoming better known, is not the least curious in modern literature. On the appearance of "A Digit of the Moon" in 1899, the author's mystifying attributions to a Sanscrit original, and the skill with which he kept up the illusion of translation, completely took in even the best scholars, and this work was added to the Oriental Department of the British Museum Library. Later, however, the discovery was made that Mr. Bain, working with a mind saturated in Hindoo Mysticism and lore and Sanscrit poetry, was wholly its author, and it is now catalogued in the ordinary way.

To describe the charm and appeal of the stories themselves would be a hard task. They are almost indescribable. There is nothing in English literature at once so tender, so passionate, so melancholy, and so wise. The fatalism of the East, and the wistful dubiety of the West, meet in these beautiful allegories of life, which it is possible to compare only with themselves.

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Bubbles of the FoamThe Ashes of a GodA Digit of the MoonThe Descent of the SunAn Incarnation of the SnowA Mine of Faults

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A Heifer of the DawnIn the Great God's HairA Draught of the BlueAn Essence of the Dusk

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